David Brooks manufactures a way to kick Joan Didion

I haven't read either book, but it seems pretty clear that David Brooks goes out of his way here to trash Joan Didion in the most tasteless way imaginable.

If you don't pay the Times for the privilege of reading Brooks' drek (I certainly don't--it was printed in my local newspaper), this is what I am upset about: Near the end of a tribute to author Marjorie Williams writings about the cancer that ended her life, Brooks finds a way to contrast her with Joan Didion, though there is no reason whatsoever for the two women to be compared or contrasted. Brooks makes the point that Williams wrote matter-of-factly about her grief and Didion wrote emotionally about hers, and that he, of course, appreciates Williams' approach.